Dr. Lou Bucky of Philadelphia is an accomplished plastic surgeon who has helped patients achieve their goals and dreams through surgery. Now, with the help of a myriad of new surgical – and, perhaps more importantly, non-surgical – devices, Bucky finds himself in the middle of an evolving plastic surgery a field, a change where surgeons are “becoming experts at understanding how to improve patients’ quality of life.”
“It’s not just about what makes you look better.” – Dr. Lou Bucky
One such avenue for quality of life improvement is with the MiraDry device. A one-time procedure that utilizes microwave energy without surgery, MiraDry “zaps” the sweat glands beneath the arm pits, ending hyperhidrosis, or a condition that causes excessive sweating.
The Curse of Sweat
The act of sweating is literally a life-saver and helped our species evolve successfully to who we are today. Unfortunately for our glorious modern world, sweating isn’t as necessary anymore, and some of us are further plagued by over-active sweat glands, a condition known as hyperhidrosis.
Surgeons became aware of their patients’ struggle with this condition and found a way through Botox to combat it. “Classically, it was a big breakthrough for years to get Botox to their underarms,” explains Bucky. “The procedure allowed you to sweat less. The only negative was you had to come back regularly to get the treatment.”
Success with a small, never-ending caveat: Botox injections stopped underarm sweating, but every 3-4 months, patients would have to return to have the procedure redone.
MiraDry – A One-Time Wonder
With burgeoning technology and medical research, medical scientists honed in on this overly sweaty niche and developed a new technology called MiraDry. Utilizing the same concept of adding heat to alter bodily tissue, MiraDry targets the actual glands themselves under the arm.
“We were familiar with the impact that underarm sweating had on our patients, and then ultimately a technology was developed called MiraDry,” explains Bucky. MiraDry uses microwave energy – energy we’re familiar with to tighten skin in other areas of plastic surgery – to attack or heat up the sweat glands underneath the arm and allow people to not perspire.”
No More Sweat, No More Odor, No More Deodorant
MiraDry results impress. “Not only are patients not perspiring, they don’t smell either, and the best part is it’s only one treatment,” explains Bucky. “Patients can throw their anti-perspirants away, they can throw their deodorant away. It’s one of the great developments that doesn’t necessarily allow people to look better, but it allows them to get through every day in a much more comfortable way.”